polling districts and polling places, and we would like to hear your views. Our goals are:
- to ensure that all electors (voters) have reasonable facilities for voting,
- to seek to make polling places (buildings where people can cast their votes) as accessible as possible for disabled people,
- to seek to make polling stations (the actual place within the buildings where people can cast their votes) are accessible as possible,
- to ensure that polling places are always located in the polling district they serve (unless there are exceptional circumstances),
- to ensure the polling place (building) is small enough that it is clear to electors living in different parts of the polling district how they can reach the polling station inside the building.
We are consulting with electors and key stakeholders (including elected representatives, political parties and groups who support disabled people) between 2 September - 11 October 2019. Please give us your views by commenting in the topic wall below, or email us at: elections@newcastle.gov.uk. Here is a list of the polling districts and places: NCC Polling Districts and Places 2019 and a representation from the Acting Returning Officer. If you need this information in a different format, such as large print, please contact us at: elections@newcastle.gov.uk or you can telephone Ian Humphries on: 0191 277 7175. you can also reach us by post at: Electoral Services, Polling District / Place Review, Newcastle City Council, Newcastle Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QH.
Access for disabled people
As part of this consultation, we are seeking the views of those groups and individuals who have experience of accessibility issues for persons with different disabilities, in particular:
- the location of polling places: are they easy to get to from the road or street?
- access for disabled people: ramp, dropped kerbs, internal barriers, lighting, voting facilities
- the proximity of the polling place to electors in the ward
- the size and layout of the room(s) currently used as polling station(s) within the polling place(s)
- any suggestions for alternative, more suitable polling places or reasonable adjustments that might be made
- any other issues
We would appreciate your views as to the barriers that disabled people may face at particular premises, also about issues that you would like the Council to take into consideration, and any reasonable adjustments that you feel could address such issues.
What happens next
All suggestions received during the consultation will be evaluated carefully against set criteria and final proposals will be considered by the council's Constitutional Committee in November 2019. These revised arrangements, if approved, will come into effect when the revised version of the Electoral Register is published on 1 December 2019.
Thank you for giving us your views.
